Hussite Wars

The Hussite Wars were a series of religious conflicts in Bohemia which occurred from 1419 to 1434, involving the rebellious, pre-Protestant Hussites and the Catholic forces loyal to the Holy Roman Empire. The fighting ended in 1434 when the moderate Hussites defeated a radical faction and made peace with the Emperor in exchange for religious toleration.

Background
In the late 14th century, dissent within the Catholic Church was on the rise, especially in the edges of the Christian world. In England, John Wycliffe attacked the luxury of the church and advocated for the vernacular translation of the Bible, and the Bohemian clergyman Jan Hus was influenced by his teachings. The Western Schism of 1378 led to the election of rival Popes in Rome and Avignon, damaging the Church's prestige and helping Hus with gathering supporters with his anti-Papacy rhetoric. King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia remained neutral during the conflict, hoping to win enough support to be elected Holy Roman Emperor. Meanwhile, his half-brother Sigismund also vied for the throne of the empire, and, in 1414, he facilitated the Council of Constance to end the schism. Hus was invited to the council to defend himself, and, while he was promised protection by Sigismund, he was executed in July 1415. His supporters, the Hussites, began attacking Catholic monasteries in Bohemia and Moravia, and, by 1419, they had launched a full-scale rebellion.

Wars
In July 1419, citizens of Prague attacked the representatives of the King, launching an uprising. Wenceslaus was so shocked by these events that he fell ill and died, and his successor Sigismund quickly sent an army to crush the Bohemian revolt. The moderate Hussite Ultraquists of Prague - nobles and burghers - insisted on negotiations, while the radical Taborites under Jan Zizka insisted on resistance. In March 1420, the Hussites defeated a Catholic army in the Battle of Sudomer, and the Hussites took over many cities in the following months before winning another victory at the Battle of Vysehrad. In January 1421, the Taborites entered Moravia and forced Sigismund to retreat to Hungary to protect his supply lines. In 1421, the Pope called for another crusade to take advantage of the Ultraquist-Taborite dissent, and Sigismund himself led the crusade and besieged Prague from three sides, causing Jan Zizka to unite the armies. In the Battle of Vitkov, 80 Hussite arquebusiers under Zizka defeated 8,000 crusaders and thwarted their attempt to take Prague. Sigismund later attempted to take Kutna Hora, and the now-blind Zizka again defeated the Imperial forces in the Battle of Kutna Hora, with Sigismund losing 10,000 troops and the Taborites losing 2,000. At Deutschbrod in 1422, Zizka pounced upon Sigismund's unprotected supply train, and the crusaders lost their provisions and were forced to withdraw yet again. Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania, who was then offered the throne of Bohemia, sent his nephew Sigismund Korybut and a few thousand fighters to assist the Hussites. In 1424, Zizka passed away, and Prokop the Great became the new Taborite leader. In the Battle of Tachov, he defated Henry Beaufort's crusader army, and the Hussites went on to raid Germany and Hungary and even assist Poland in the 1431-1435 war against the Teutonic Order. In 1433, the Hussites were invited to the Council of Basel, where the Ultraquists and the Catholic Church were reconciled, while the Taborites refused to accept reconciliation. In 1434, the armies of the Ultraquists and Taborites met at the Battle of Lipany, with almost all of the Czech nobles serving under the Ultraquist leader Divis Borek of Miletinek. The Ultraquist-Catholic army won a decisive victory over the Taborites, and, in 1436, Sigismund was restored to the throne, while the Ultraquists were allowed to worship in their own fashion. The Taborite defeat delayed the Reformation for a whole century, but the Hussite Wars inaugurated a new era of European religious warfare.